Sunday, October 16, 2016

A Few Questions With Marylin Zuniga (An Interview) | The Jose Vilson

For the better part of a decade, I’ve been exploring the idea of social justice education. While not a new idea, it’s picked up steam over the last couple of years with the Black Lives Matter movements, ethnic studies initiatives, and the need for diversifying the teaching profession. In the crossroads of these different movements stand a subset of educators who identify as social justice educators, thinking through their pedagogy and curriculum in the hopes of pointing their content towards making students into change agents for a better world.

Even though most people push social justice curricula in the middle and high school grades, not much has been said in the way of early childhood education (ECE). Whereas most assume that children won’t get concepts about social change in their pre-teen years, there’s been evidence from a plethora of teachers who’ve undertaken this work that this is possible and necessary. Rather than waiting for children to get activated in their teenage years, social justice ECE do masterful work with our youth through inquiry and passion.